Americans evacuated from outbreak zone
Deaths from China’s coronavirus climb to 132
SANTA ANA, Calif. — An airplane evacuating as many as 240 Americans from a Chinese city at the center of a virus outbreak departed Wednesday before dawn, and is en route to the U.S., a U.S. State Department official has told The Associated Press
The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan, where the latest coronavirus outbreak started, and other U.S. citizens. The plane will make a refueling stop in Alaska before flying on to Ontario, California, the U.S. Embassy in China has said.
Wuhan is the epicenter of a new virus thathas killed 132 people and infected more than 6,000 on the mainland and abroad, and the official said Tuesday that the plane left the city before dawn Wednesday, China time. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.
When the plane arrives in Anchorage, Alaska, passengers will clear customs and go through the Centers for Disease Control screening.
“Then they will put them back on the plane and then send them on to their final destination,” said Jim Szczesniak, manager of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. He didn’t know how long it would take beyond “hours.”
The passengers are being isolated in the airport’s international terminal, which lies mostly dormant in the winter months.
Szczesniak stressed the terminal is not connected to the larger and heavily used domestic flights terminal, and each has separate ventilation systems.
The lobby in the international terminal was nearly empty Tuesday afternoon, and an airport employee was seen jogging through though the facility that has closed counters for companies like Korean Air, China Airlines and Asiana Airlines. There are two businesses operating at either end of the ticket coutners, a 4x4 rental agency and a satellite office of the Alaska Division of Motor Vehicles.
Because the terminal is only active in the summer, it allows the airport to practice situations such as this one.
“In the winter time, we have the ability and the luxury of not having any passenger traffic over there, so it’s a perfect area for us to handle this kind of flight,” he said.
Officials at the California airport 35 miles east of Los Angeles have been readying facilities to receive and screen the repatriates and temporarily house them for up to two weeks — if the Centers for Disease Control determines that is necessary, said David Wert, spokesman for the county of San Bernardino.
“We’re preparing for that eventuality just in case,” Wert said.
Symptoms of the virus include fever, cough, and in more severe cases shortness of breath or pneumonia.
China has cut off access to Wuhan and 16 other cities in Hubei province to prevent people from leaving and spreading the virus further. In addition to the United States, countries including Japan and South Korea have also planned evacuations.
Ontario International Airport was designated about a decade ago by the U.S. government to receive repatriated Americans in case of an emergency overseas, Wert said.
Airport personnel have trained for such an occasion. The repatriation from China would be the first time the airport is used for this purpose, he said.
Passengers will be screened again once they arrive in Ontario, California. The area where passengers will be taken is removed from passenger terminals and other public areas at the airport, the county said.
Meanwhile, China’s latest figures cover the previous 24 hours and add 26 to the number of deaths, 25 of which were in the central province of Hubei and its capital, Wuhan. The 5,974 cases on the mainland marked a rise of 1,459 from the previous day, although that rise is a smaller increase than the 1,771 new cases reported on Monday. Dozens of infections have been confirmed abroad as well.
The lockdown of 17 cities has trapped more than 50 million people in the most far-reaching disease control measures ever imposed.
The new virus is from the coronavirus family, which includes those that can cause the common cold as well as more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.
The source of the virus and the full extent of its spread are still unknown. However, the World Health Organization said most cases reported to date “have been milder, with around 20% of those infected experiencing severe illness.”
On Tuesday, WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss the latest information on the outbreak and reiterate their commitment to bringing it under control.
“The National Health Commission presented China’s strong public health capacities and resources to respond and manage respiratory disease outbreaks,” WHO’s statement said.
It said discussions focused on ways to cooperate to contain the virus in Wuhan and other cities and provinces and studies that could contribute to the development of medical countermeasures such as vaccines and treatments. Other WHO experts will visit China as soon as possible, it said.
“Stopping the spread of this virus both in China and globally is WHO’s highest priority,” Tedros said.